"Dr. Rivers, why don't you come with us to Subrind? You would be provided with far more than Dilrik has ever offered you."
Craig said persuasively as the car rolled to a stop a few houses away from Sienna's hospital.
Sienna raised a brow in amusement. "Because I happened to calm his other side?"
Craig opened his mouth to answer, but Isaac spoke first.
"That would be troublesome."
His calm voice cut cleanly through the conversation.
"I'll come to Dilrik whenever treatment is necessary. I hope we maintain a good partnership, Dr. Rivers."
Sienna almost rolled her eyes harder.
Partnership?
There was absolutely nothing equal about this arrangement. He had blackmailed her into helping him.
And somehow, annoyingly enough, she had still found herself becoming invested in his condition.
"Goodbye, Prince," she said and stepped out of the car, the cool afternoon air brushing against her face as she walked toward the hospital gates.
Behind her, silence settled briefly inside the vehicle.
Then Craig finally spoke.
"Master…"
"Drop it."
Isaac's tone left no room for discussion.
Craig immediately fell silent.
He had long learned that once Isaac made a decision, trying to change his mind was useless.
"Head to the airport; we're returning to Subrind." Isaac said
"Yes, Master."
The engine started smoothly.
Craig didn't notice the pale pink handkerchief now resting between Isaac's fingers. Sienna's handkerchief.
He slowly folded the delicate fabric before lifting it to his nose, the faint scent of her still clinging stubbornly to it, and the violent pressure buried deep beneath his skin eased ever so slightly.
Taking Sienna back to Subrind would create complications he wasn't prepared to face yet.
But this would help for now.
At least until her scent faded away.
And during that borrowed time, he intended to finally step outside the cage he had lived in for years and see the empire he had built from the shadows.
---
The moment Sienna entered the hospital lobby, a nurse hurried toward her.
"Dr. Rivers, an aristocrat is in your office requesting a consultation."
Sienna slowed slightly.
That was strange.
Aristocrats barely ever came personally to hospitals. They preferred summoning doctors to their estates like royalty issuing commands.
"Thank you," she said and continued toward her office.
As soon as she reached the corridor leading there, her brows furrowed.
Two armed men stood silently outside her office door.
Tall, expressionless, and dressed entirely in black.
Definitely not regular security.
Sienna pushed the door open cautiously.
A man stood inside, casually examining the framed childhood picture sitting on her desk.
He possessed sand-brown hair, a tall build, and half his face was concealed beneath a dark mask.
The moment he sensed her presence, he turned toward her with a smile.
"Hi there, Ianthe."
Sienna froze for half a second.
Something about that name sent a strange feeling of familiarity through her.
So much amusement danced in his visible eyes on seeing her reaction.
"You've grown so much." His voice carried an easy warmth that somehow felt unsettling. "I preferred when you still cried while following me around."
Sienna was getting irritated now; he sounded like he knew her from somewhere before, and she didn't like it.
"You must be the aristocrat requesting a diagnosis," she said. "For clarification, my name is Sienna Rivers, not Ianthe. And I would appreciate it if you stopped touching my things."
The man chuckled softly.
There was something deeply eerie about how relaxed he looked standing in her office like he belonged there.
"What exactly do you want, sir?" she asked.
"I have a headache."
"…That's all?"
"Yes." He shrugged lazily. "Who knows? It might even be cancer."
Sienna almost nodded negatively; she gestured toward the chair opposite her desk.
"Sit there, please."
To her surprise, he obeyed immediately.
"What's your name?"
"Leonard Devereaux."
She wrote it down without much thought, and then she began the examination.
His pulse was normal, blood pressure was stable, there were no neurological abnormalities, no fever, nothing.
After several minutes, she stepped back.
"You're perfectly fine, Mr. Devereaux. But if you're unconvinced, you can take additional scans."
"No need." He rose smoothly to his feet. "I trust your judgment, Ianthe."
Sienna's face darkened again.
"That isn't my…"
But he was already walking toward the door with both hands tucked casually into his pockets.
The armed men immediately followed after him the moment he walked out and the room fell silent.
Sienna picked the document and scanned the name but she didn't know such name.
That man was weird.
Something about him felt disturbingly familiar even though she couldn't pin point what it was.
---
The moment her shift ended, Sienna hurried home and buried herself inside her library.
Medical journals, reports, and every document remotely connected to IAD covered her desk in chaotic piles.
Hours slipped by unnoticed.
She forgot food entirely.
The more she researched Isaac's condition, the more impossible it became.
Nothing in recorded medical literature explained why her scent could suppress his episodes.
And by midnight, exhaustion finally overtook her.
She fell asleep slumped across the table, surrounded by open books and scattered notes.
---
"Doctor."
A knock sounded against the library door.
"Doctor, are you inside?"
Sienna groaned softly before lifting her head.
Pain immediately shot through her neck and shoulders.
"Yes, Ava…"
"Did you sleep in the library again?"
Sienna blinked groggily at the books surrounding her.
"…No?"
Silence.
Ava clearly didn't believe her.
"You should watch the news this morning, Doctor," Ava said after a pause.
Her tone was strange. It sounded serious.
Then her footsteps faded away.
Sienna frowned.
The news?
She rarely cared for political updates unless they involved medicine or the rising tension between Dilrik and Subrind, and Ava had never bothered her with it until this morning.
Curious now, she grabbed her phone and froze.
The headlines exploded across the screen.
DILRIK STRIKES SUBRIND NUCLEAR FACILITY.
SUBRIND LAUNCHES FULL RETALIATORY ASSAULT.
MULTIPLE CASUALTIES CONFIRMED
The more she read, the colder her expression became.
Dilrik had struck Surbrind, but Subrind's retaliation had been immediate and brutal.
They struck military facilities and various supply stations.
Even Dilrik-owned assets in neutral territories had been attacked overnight.
It was as though Subrind had been waiting for this exact excuse that Dilrik had struck first before launching an attack.
Her phone suddenly rang.
Rowan.
She answered immediately.
"Sienna." His voice sounded strained in a way she had never heard before. "I'm sorry to interrupt your leave, but we desperately need you here."
Chaos echoed behind him: crying, shouting, and lamentation.
"I'll be there in a few minutes," she replied instantly and ended the call.
Sienna stood abruptly and hurried out of the library.
"Ava!" she called while heading toward her room. "Get ready. We're going to the hospital."
"Yes, Doctor."
As she changed clothes quickly, her thoughts spiraled.
This had come so suddenly and had escalated far too quickly and violently.
She pushed the thought away immediately.
Politics could wait.
People were dying.
---
The hospital looked like hell.
The moment Sienna stepped through the entrance, the sounds hit her first.
Screaming.
Crying.
Orders being barked across corridors.
Stretchers rattling endlessly over bloodstained floors.
Every available space overflowed with injured civilians and soldiers.
Some conscious, some barely breathing, and some already dead.
The metallic tang of blood filled the air so heavily it almost overpowered the antiseptic.
Doctors and nurses rushed frantically from patient to patient, uniforms stained red, faces exhausted.
There weren't enough hands.
Not nearly enough.
Families clung desperately to anyone wearing scrubs, begging to save their loved ones.
The entire hospital had descended into chaos.
"Dr. Rivers!"
A nurse pushed through the crowd toward her, relief flooding her face the moment she appeared and everyone's attention shifted.
"Thank God you're here. Ward B3 needs you immediately."
Sienna was already moving, and Ava stayed close to her, clearing a path through the panicked crowd.
"Male patient," the nurse explained breathlessly while hurrying alongside her. "Missile shrapnel penetrated the chest wall. Lung is collapsing rapidly."
By the time they reached the ward doors, Sienna was already very prepared.
She shoved the doors open.
Doctors immediately stepped aside for her without needing instruction.
The patient convulsed weakly on the operating bed, blood soaking through the compress pressed against his chest.
One glance that was all it took Sienna.
"Prep chest tube insertion now," she ordered sharply while pulling on gloves. "And somebody get me a thoracotomy tray immediately."
The room exploded into motion.
Machines beeped violently.
Nurses rushed.
The patient's breathing grew weaker by the second.
Sienna stepped forward without hesitation, calm in the middle of disaster.
And from that moment onward, she became very busy.